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In a decision issued earlier this month, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that disciplining students for using biological pronouns rather than their classmates’ preferred pronouns violates the First Amendment. The case, Defending Edn. v. Olentangy Local School Dist. Bd. of Edn., was originally brought in response to three district policies regarding harassment, bullying and the use of personal communication devices. The policies were intended to “maintain an education and work environment that is…

Last week, the U.S. District Court concluded that the territory transfer law enacted in the 2019-2020 biennial budget bill violated the Ohio Constitution. As a result, six territory transfers enacted under the law were halted and two territory transfer matters that were to be on the ballot in November are now moot.

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Earlier this month, two federal courts issued decisions in cases involving the rights of transgender students. These decisions should help school districts understand their legal obligations as they apply to all students. 

Grimm v. Gloucester County School Board 

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The Fourth Circuit court of appeals recently ruled in G.G. v. Gloucester Cty. School Bd., that courts must give deference to the U.S. Department of Education’s recent guidance that public schools must treat a transgender student in conformity with the student’s gender identity.  

The case involved a transgender male student in Virginia named Gavin Grimm, whose birth-assigned sex was female, but who identifies as male. In 2014, Gavin’s school district adopted a policy that required students…

We wanted to direct your attention to two new legal resources that can be used by school attorneys, board members, and the districts they serve.

• Academic Distress Commissions
  House bill 70, which was signed by Gov. John Kasich on July 16, made significant changes to state academic distress commissions. Under the new law, which will become effective on October 15, the superintendent of public instruction is required to establish an academic distress commission for any school district that: 1) receives an overall grade of “F” for three consecutive years…

This spring, the United States Supreme Court will hear the case of City of Ontario v. Quon, which questions whether the Fourth Amendment protects the privacy of text messages that a government employee sends by electronic device.

In 2001, the city of Ontario, California distributed pagers to a number of the employees in its police department. Jeff Quon, a member of the departments SWAT team, received one of the pagers. The city had no official policy governing…

In the case of Lowery v. Jefferson County Bd. of Educ., a high school football coach from Jefferson County High School in Tennessee dismissed three students from the football team for challenging his leadership. After the students parents were unsuccessful with their complaints to school officials, they addressed their concerns to the Jefferson County Board of Education.

The Jefferson County Board of Education had a policy in place that allowed an individual to apply to…